President Obama at U.N. gives robust defense of free speech

UNITED NATIONS — President Barack Obama used a high-profile speech to the United Nations Tuesday to deliver his most robust defense of the value of freedom of expression since an anti-Muslim video triggered protests against America across the Muslim world.

While Obama’s forceful endorsement of free speech rights was delivered to leaders of many regimes that repress critics, the president’s message seemed intended as much for a domestic audience: He sought to quiet Republicans who have attacked him for failing to stand up for “American values.”

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Obama's address to U.N.

“I know there are some who ask why we don’t just ban such a video. The answer is enshrined in our laws: Our Constitution protects the right to practice free speech,” Obama told world leaders and delegates gathered for the United Nations General Assembly.

“Here in the United States, countless publications provoke offense. Like me, the majority of Americans are Christian, and yet we do not ban blasphemy against our most sacred beliefs. As president of our country, and commander-in-chief of our military, I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day, and I will always defend their right to do so,” Obama said, drawing sustained applause.

In the wake of the protests, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and others in the GOP sharply criticized Obama for expressing sympathy with the demonstrators’ outrage and not immediately standing up for free speech.

The president’s half-hour speech to the United Nations Tuesday also came amid fresh GOP attacks for his decision to delegate the usual one-on-one meetings with world leaders to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, even as Obama made time Monday for a taping of “The View.”

Obama’s forceful defense of free speech rights included a civics-class-style explanation of why allowing offensive speech and confronting it with other speech is preferable to trying to ban objectionable speech outright.

“Americans have fought and died around the globe to protect the right of all people to express their views — even views that we disagree with,” he said.

The president argued that efforts to suppress free expression are increasingly ineffective in an interconnected world.

“I know that not all countries in this body share this understanding of the protection of free speech. Yet in 2012, at a time when anyone with a cell phone can spread offensive views around the world with the click of a button, the notion that we can control the flow of information is obsolete,” Obama said.

The president made little mention of Afghanistan during his speech, devoting a clause to a recent suicide bombing and a sentence to promising that “America and our allies will end our war on schedule in 2014.”

Obama began his address with a tribute to Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, who was killed earlier this month along with three other Americans in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. The president sought to harness sympathy and outrage over the attack by describing it as a strike on diplomats of all nations and on the entire civilized world.

“The attacks of the last two weeks are not simply an assault on America. They are also an assault on the very ideals upon which the United Nations was founded,” Obama said. “If we are serious about those ideals, we must speak honestly about the deeper causes of this crisis. Because we face a choice between the forces that would drive us apart, and the hopes we hold in common.”

“Today, we must affirm that our future will be determined by people like Chris Stevens, and not by his killers. Today, we must declare that this violence and intolerance has no place among our United Nations ,” Obama said.

America has a history of hypocrisy when it comes to promoting the democratic principles we live by. We would rather support autocrats and dictators than promote free elections and democracy. It's about time we support the principles embodied in out Constitution.

Like everything else with this egomaniac, he believes that him just saying it will make it so.

Well, it won't.

In order to accomplish a goal, you need to lay out a plan, along with steps to accomplish it. But I don't think this guy understands that. Everything has always been handed to him. He's never had to actually accomplish anything on his own, so he doesn't understand that getting to a goal requires work. I guess that's why his presidency has been such a dismal failure.

What happened to his goal of closing Gitmo?

What happend to his goal of cutting the deficit in half?

What happened to his goal of being the most transparent presidency in history?

What happened to his goal of getting us out of recession?

What happened to his goal of ending the wars in the middle east?

What happened to his goal of being the "post-partisan president" and bringing us all together?

What happened to his goal of making all the rest of the world love us?

It's time for a president with a proven record of success, not just one who can read a teleprompter well. We've had far too much talk. Time for some action. The only action we've gotten out of Obama is on the golf course.

Josh, bringing the art form of yellow journalism to a whole new level.. The attack that killed our ambassador had nothing to do wtih a film nor does it have anything to do with the unrest.. What caused the problem and made it worse were the cowards in the White House running cover for a the terrorists by blaming a video that no one saw that was released months on utube before this garbage went down. They keep giving Musliim terrorists an excure while not acting strongly nor boldly and they left an Ambassador with little or no protection from terrorists because Marines on the ground make insult Muslims..

This President who referred to himself as sys candy is a coward and not worthy of being the Commander and Chief..

"...Just words. Just speeches...." to quote Obama from a 2008 speech. The man has uttered so many exaggerations and untruths that i doubt he knows what he is saying. Let's see if he will back up his words with actions.. If he can fit time in to actually do the job of a President in between hustling folks for his campaign and being "eye candy" for the broads on the View.

"If we are serious about those ideals, we must speak honestly about the deeper causes of this crisis...." Obama's words, but will he ever have the guts to actually come out and call it Radical Islam terrorism; that they want to destroy the United States as well? That the Muslim Brotherhood is no friend of the US and Al Qaeda had ties to the attacks? Nope... he has no spine...

Though only excerpts from the speech, those excerpts seem to provide the right deeper analysis and convey the right tone. Diplomacy is (free) speech and should always be preferred to violence, be it to express anger and outrage or resolve conflicts. The eruptions of violence, be they the unfortunate byproduct of a spontaneous civilian mob or the intended result of organized terrorist operations, threaten all diplomacy-embracing countries seeking peace, greater mutual understanding and fruitful cooperation through (free) speech.

Concerning the nuclearization of Iran, it would be nice if we could speak from a nuclear-free position of righteousness. But we can't and therefore the sanctions imposed by the United States and Israel, France, England, China, Russia, India, et cetera, have the stench of hypocrisy about them. Maybe if Russia and the United States would make a joint announcement at the U.N. today that they are reducing their active nuclear warheads from quadruple digits to triple digits, Iranians might be more apt to believe that no nuclear weapons is the way the world is choosing to go. Otherwise, I'm afraid we have no moral justification for denying Iran from having what we have and for wanting the weapons for the same power-boosting, respect-boosting and defensive reasons we do.

BUT, Josh, no one believes this President. Not Iran. Not Israel. Not our allies nor our foes. Obama talks tough, but is toothless. He has bent to the will of Russia (to remove missile defense from Poland), he has bent to the will of the Chinese (no protests over their currency manipulation), he has withdrawn our entire military presence from Iraq so we cannot help their government resist Iran and Syria, he has let Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood dictate the terms of our relationship as they permitted their mobs to attack our embassy, and he has done nothing to curb excesses by other enemies of America such as North Korea, Venezuela, or Pakistan's extremists. This man is all talk and no action or results.

Empty words from an empty chair. This from the Dictator in Chief Obama who wouldn't take the time to sit down with the Prime Minister of Israel, our FRIEND, but had time to do the View and Letterman. Eastwood was right, when someone doesn't do the job, it's time to let them go. Romney-Ryan in November!!!

It's the way Obama plays basketball. He very carefully sets up the play. He has been setting the play on Iran for four years: unprecedented sanctions that are starting to work; cut off of military supply to Iran from Russia and China; unanimous UN IAEA condemnation of the Iranian uranium enrichment program and hidden facilities - including China and Russia; undermining Iranian regime's allies in Syria; supporting the Iranian opposition, including the armed opposition group; repeated high tech sabotage of the Iranian program - including cutting the power to Fordow, computer viruses to show Iran's vulnerability from within... short of war still pressing for a permanent resolution with IAEA inspection and dismantlement.

Iran has violated the UN arms embargo by sending soldiers and military equipment to Syria. This may be the trigger action that everyone has been waiting for. At the right time, on UN Security Council resolution, Russia, Turkey and the US send in a military force to take down the Assad regime and take Syria's missile arsenal and chemical weapons. Then the Arab peacekeeping force takes over. After the election.

Way to go,Barry,Boy. Put the old "stall for time" speech out there.Keep talking to them,and all the time we are talking,they are arming and planning,and very soon,right in the middle of our "talking" we are going to get caught caught with our mouths open and our pants down, when A-Jad lights off 20 kilotons of KABOOM over Israel which will begin WW 3 .So keep talking,Barry Boy. Keep "talking" to Russia,China,N,Korea,Venezuela,Syria,etc while they keep planning to do the exact same thing to us,and when they do they will all come for us at once,both from within, and from abroad."Barack Obama is a radical Communist and we will either stop him or the United States will cease to exist"--Alan Keyes.